A Georgian Renaissance
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A Georgian renaissance Crichel, Dorset, part II The Home of Mr and Mrs Richard Chilton, Jr In the second of two articles, John Martin Robinson looks at the recent restoration of this magnificent Georgian house and its dazzling series of re-created interiors of the 1770s by James Wyatt Photographs by Paul Highnam Fig 1 left: The south façade, framed by a great cedar on the edge of the lake Fig 2 above: The newly restored dining room. The doors in the north end of the dining room have been reinstated after they were discovered in the basement of the house RICHEL is one of the finest It also included the formation of the Long Georgian houses in Dorset. As we Drawing Room from two pre-existing discovered last week, its unusual, smaller spaces and the addition of pilasters even unconventional, design is to Wyatt’s Drawing Room. Csubstantially the result of the input of its Lady Alington seems to have been closely late-18th-century owner Humphrey Sturt. involved in the work and had an eye for In the past century, however, it has undergone Georgian things. She claimed to have res- three ambitious phases of neo-Georgian cued the remarkable series of gilt Rococo remodelling by his descendants, as well as looking glasses from storage in the stables a recent exemplary restoration by Richard (several are still in the house) and she was Chilton (Fig 1). These last changes have pre- certainly responsible for retrieving heir- served the integrity of the many-layered history looms from her own family house at Wimpole of the house and also re-created a spectacular when the Earl of Hardwicke went bankrupt. series of 1770s interiors by James Wyatt. Many of the Edwardian fittings at Cri- The 1st Lord Alington died in 1904 and was chel—notably, the chimneypieces in the succeeded by his son, Humphrey. With his Entrance Hall and Library—are remarkably wife, Feodorowna, a daughter of the 5th Earl convincing in the Flitcroft manner and it is of Hardwicke (‘Champagne Charlie’), he possible that they are genuine 18th-century embarked on ambitious improvements to items rescued from Redlynch in Somerset when Crichel in 1905, notably the laying out of that house was remodelled by Lord Ilchester a very elaborate Italian garden on the south in 1913. Glazing bars were also reinstated front (removed after the Second World War). in the windows. As recorded by COUNTRY It was designed by Harold Peto, who had LIFE in 1925, Crichel shows the sumptuous been in partnership with Sir Ernest George results of the Edwardian refurbishment. before he focused on garden design after Further work was done by the 3rd and last recuperating in Italy from an illness. Lord Alington around about the time of his There is no evidence for the architect of marriage to a neighbour, Lady Mary Sibell the interiors at Crichel of about 1908–14, Ashley-Cooper of St Giles, in 1928. This but they could also have been by Peto as he included the installation of central heating designed many houses in Chelsea and was and the redecoration of the Wyatt Drawing responsible for the Georgian interiors of Room with blue silk on the walls. This was the Cunard liner Mauretania (1906), with deemed a suitable background for Lord panelling by H. H. Martyn of Cheltenham. Alington’s Italian picture collection (he was This ‘Georgianising’ at Crichel involved a member of the Magnasco Society, founded the complete remodelling of Burns’s Entrance in 1924, and a friend of the Sitwells). Hall, Billiard Room and family dining room Unfortunately, at the same time, he in a remarkably convincing Georgian manner. removed Wyatt’s splendid Siena scagliola ➢ Country Life, February 15, 2017 49 in the drawing room and the large carved mahogany side tables in the dining room. They have added substantially to these retained contents with their own collection (Mr Chilton was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum and Mrs Chilton president of the New York Botanical Gardenv), as well as acquir- ing appropriate late-18th-century furniture specially for the house. Thomas Jayne of New York and his assistant Egan Seward have advised on the decoration and furnishing of the house. New acquisitions include the chandelier, table and chairs in the dining room, all of appropriate scale and character, and the neo-Classical seat furniture in the Wyatt manner in the Drawing Room. The decision was made to reinstate ‘fully the missing Wyatt elements An especially happy new introduction is the blue-background, 18th-century wall- Above: The main staircase rises to a long corridor with plaster decoration Fig 3 right: James paper in the Long Drawing Room, which’ has Wyatt’s 1770s Drawing Room has been returned to its former splendour. The great Venetian strengthened the character of this Edward- window has been restored and the ceiling has been cleaned and retouched where necessary ian neo-Georgian room and makes a good counterpoint to the Rococo character of Corinthian columns from the huge Venetian Fowler as her adviser, but, when she called the gilt pier glasses and stucco ceiling. window at the south end of the room, which at his Brook Street showroom, she found it Elsewhere, Mallets decoration and furnish- he thought over-scaled. He also added appro- closed for lunch, so she turned to Malletts ings have been retained, especially in the West priate painted Classical panels by Cipriani instead. Francis Egerton, the senior partner Hall and Library. to the lower walls of the Staircase Hall, which there, advised her on interior decoration Mr Chilton was keen to reinstate the came from Arlington Street. and the acquisition of furniture and objects. character of the principal Wyatt state rooms In 1938, the house and estate were requi- E. F. Tew of Bath was appointed architect. on the east front where 1930s alterations sitioned by the Air Ministry for war training Under Tew’s direction, the Victorian north in the Drawing Room had left it bereft of the and many of the contents were dispersed wings of the house were demolished and the scagliola columns and Lord Alington’s wall at that time. Lord Alington himself died in site rearranged to create a balustraded, sunken silk was worn out. More seriously, signifi- 1940 while serving in the Royal Air Force, courtyard. This reused architectural fea- cant elements had been removed from the East leaving his 11-year-old daughter, Mary tures from Peto’s Italian Garden, which was Hall and the dining room in the 1960s. Anna, an heiress. In 1946, the empty house grassed over to restore the Georgian land- In the latter, Wyatt’s splendid mahogany was let to Cranborne Chase School. scape setting. All the main rooms (apart from doors at the north end—which once led After Oxford, Mary Anna married Toby the Drawing Room) were redecorated in the to the serving room and kitchen—had been Marten and, together, they embarked on 1960s, making the work at Crichel one of the removed and replaced with a looking glass reviving the estate. In 1954, they secured most comprehensive postwar schemes in any and the walls had been painted in an unhis- a famous victory, retrieving land on Crichel English country house. torical scheme. Down that had been compulsorily requi- A further campaign was undertaken in The most significant 1960s Mallets sitioned for war-training purposes. They 1979–80, when Wyatt’s gallery over the south alterations had been made in the East won the land back in the High Court against portico was re-created from the guest bed- Hall, where Wyatt’s ceiling with painted the Ministry of Defence, securing the resig- rooms into which it had been sub-divided panels and a small sunken central dome nation of the Minister responsible, Sir Thomas in the Edwardian period. The top floor became had been replaced with a plain flat ceiling Dugdale, later 1st Lord Crathorne. the family apartment, with wonderful views and the frieze and stucco decorations on In 1961, Mrs Marten ended the lease to the over the park and lake, and was redecor- the upper walls removed—Mrs Marten and school (which moved to New Wardour Castle ated by John Stefanides. her advisors had wrongly thought they in Wiltshire) and announced her intention After Mrs Marten’s death, the Chiltons were Victorian. to move back in, a significant moment in bought the house in 2013, with many of the The decision was made to reinstate fully the postwar history of the English country contents, including the Hardwicke portraits, the missing Wyatt elements and colour house, paralleling the move of the Devonshires the Library bookcase, the Classical medal- schemes. Peregrine Bryant was appointed back into Chatsworth and the Bedfords into lions of Roman emperors in the lobby, the the architect, with Patrick Baty as the specialist Woburn. She immediately embarked on the Cipriani panels and chandelier in the Stair- paint analyst and Hesp, Jones & co. of Bening- reduction, repair and redecoration of the case Hall, the gilt Rococo looking glasses brough as the executants. The work was com- house. Her initial intention was to use John in the Long Drawing Room, the chandelier pleted in 2015. ➢ 50 Country Life, February 15, 2017 www.countrylife.co.uk the inserted 1960s ceiling was removed, the central sunken dome was revealed and provided clear evidence of the Wyatt decor- ation in green and cream, part trompe and part moulded, similar to his and Rebecca’s scheme in the Saloon at Heveningham. The painted surrounding panels, also in trompe-green, have been re-created from COUNTRY LIFE photographs also by Christian Corgier.